You guys had the same neighbor as me, right?

While Friday’s loss was just one of those games, and Saturday was an absolute demolishing of the Phillies (Hey, look, it’s Joey Votto!), what happened on Sunday simply can’t happen again. You can’t have (another) great outing by Homer Bailey, and then follow it up with a bullpen collapse. I’m looking at you, Aroldis Chapman. And that grumbling you hear, that’s me thinking about Jonathan Broxton.

I’ll allow the run that Broxton gave up, but only because it was the only (at the time) run the Reds had given up in almost 17 innings. But back-to-back homers in the bottom of the 9th? Come on, Chapman.

The Reds could’ve, should’ve and would’ve taken that series. Instead, they didn’t, shouldn’t and wouldn’t.

The Florida Miami Marlins are not a good baseball team. In fact, they’re a downright terrible baseball team, but a sweep is a sweep (is a sweep). Especially when it’s the second series sweep in a row for the Reds. And they finally gained a game on the Cardinals, who apparently refuse to lose.

There are no apologies for a six-game win streak against the last place Brewers and the last place Marlins. The Reds are doing what they need to do, which is beat the bad teams. Of course, they need to beat the good teams, too (19 of the Reds’ 25 wins are against sub-.500 teams), but the Reds don’t make the schedule. The Brewers play the same teams as the Reds and they’re in last place.

But when there’s good news, there’s usually bad news. As Jay Bruce is slowly digging his way out of his slump, Todd Frazier and Zach Cozart continue to be mired in their own respective slumps. In fact, they were the only two guys who didn’t have a hit against the Marlins tonight. Frazier went 0-9 in the series against the Marlins.

Please refer to the first two sentences of this post to see my thoughts on the Marlins.

The Phillies should prove to be a tougher opponent for the Reds. The starting pitchers the Reds will be facing this weekend in Philadelphia are a combined 11-3 on the season. The Miami Marlins — as a team — only have 11 wins.

Whenever articles about a team are qualified with “the struggling…,” you know you have to pounce on them. And that’s just what the Reds did against the struggling Brewers this weekend. Did you see what they did to Hiram Burgos on Saturday afternoon?

From ESPN.com:

Hiram Burgos is the 3rd starting pitcher in the last 95 seasons to allow at least 12 runs and 11 hits in 3 IP or fewer. The others were Johnny Miljus in 1929 and A.J. Burnett in 2012.

And Brewers’ manager Ron Roenicke took the “you got yourself into this mess, now get yourself out of it” approach.

From me:

Ouch.

The Cincinnati Enquirer’s Paul Daugherty just published an article about Jay Bruce. In it, he says that despite Bruce leading the league in strikeouts (by the way, that’s a negative thing), we should accept Bruce and the consistent inconsistency that comes with him.

Or someone could work with Bruce to make him a better all-around player. Either one.

There’s really only one word that can describe the Reds’ schedule to-date, and that word is: brutal. The next few weeks has the Reds playing teams like the Marlins, the Mets, the Phillies and the Cubs. That’s not to say that these will be easy wins, but the Reds should absolutely use this time to distance themselves from the competition.

(AP Photo/Al Behrman)

Homer Bailey gave up 3 runs, 3 hits and 2 walks in the first inning. So, of course, he ended up pitching 5.0 innings, giving up only 1 more run, 2 more hits and 2 more walks. The Braves finished the night with only 5 total hits, by the way.

The Reds were down by 1 with 2 outs and nobody on in the bottom of the 9th. So, of course, the Reds hit back-to-back homers by Devin Mesoraco and Shin-Soo Choo to win the game. I was walking my dog when all of this happened, by the way.

The Braves lost a game. So, of course, they blame the ballpark:

Anytime we’re here, the ballpark is kind of an excuse, but that Mesoraco fly ball is a fly-ball out in a lot of places. — Kris Medlan, Atlanta Braves starting pitcher

Perhaps, but that Choo homer was a homer in every place.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned about the 2013 Reds is that they don’t give up. Most teams down 3-0 to the Braves in the 1st inning would phone it in and start thinking about tomorrow’s game, but the Reds always seem to find a way to methodically fight their way back into a game. They’re not always successful, but I feel like the Reds usually have at least one opportunity to tie or take the lead in a game when they’re trailing.

I like that quality in a baseball team.

The “Friendly Confines,” indeed.

SWEEP!

For a team that couldn’t win on the road, the timing of the Reds’ arrival at Wrigley Field couldn’t have been better. They’ve now won 10 straight at the corner of Clark and Addison, but Cubs fans wouldn’t know that. Because they’re always drunk, you see.

There are 11.7 million people in this country that are currently unemployed. Carlos Marmol is not one of them. You want job security? Play for the Chicago Cubs.

The Reds have been anything but impressive so far this season, but — for the most part — they’re finding ways to win. Johnny Cueto will probably be lost for (at least) the first two months of the season. The Reds’ starting left fielder, Ryan Ludwick got hurt on Opening Day and will be out (at least) until the All-Star Break. The Reds’ primary catcher, Ryan Hanigan has been hurting since Spring Training, and is due to begin a rehab assignment any day now. Brandon Phillips left today’s game after colliding with Shin-Soo Choo, but I have no idea what his injury might be.

So how is this team winning?

From an offensive standpoint, there’s definitely been something off with this team in the first 5 weeks of the season. Yes, they hit pretty well this weekend against a halfway decent Cubs’ starting rotation (and almost completely terrible Cubs’ bullpen), but the rest of the season, the hits have come in bunches or they haven’t come at all. I seriously doubt that all of these guys simply forgot how to hit — and all at the exact same time — so I’m convinced it’s just a phase that they’ll grow out of.

Are people still complaining about Joey Votto’s “slow start?” Take a good, long look at his stats and tell me how this guy is having an off-year.

Last but not least, I’d like to thank Ballpark Savvy for naming Chris Sabo’s Goggles to their list of Top 25 MLB Team Blogs You Should Be Reading. As a Cincinnati Reds blogger, Facebooker and Twitterer made up of a staff of precisely one person that lives over 300 miles from Cincinnati, it’s nice that I’m able to make a small dent in the Reds’ online community.

If there was a ceremony to accept my award for this, I wouldn’t show up as a way of protesting — oh, I don’t know… let’s just say blood diamonds or something.

Because Chris Sabo’s Goggles cares.

In case you haven’t heard by now, Bruce took to the Twitters last night to voice his displeasure with the people who voiced their displeasure on Twitter about the way Bruce has been (or hasn’t been) playing in the first month of season.

It started like this:

And ended like this:

You can probably figure out what happened in between.

While I agree with Bruce’s general stance on the matter, I don’t agree with his approach. By acknowledging the blowhards on Twitter, Facebook, etc., you only encourage them. If someone’s life is so shallow that they feel the need to attack a professional athlete on social media, it’s doubtful they’re going to change their ways after being called out by said athlete.

The best approach in situations like these is to ignore it. Or hit better with runners in scoring position. Either one.

The fact of the matter is, it’s embarrassing that this conversation had to happen at all. The last time I checked, baseball is a game — 162 of them to be precise. Can it be a frustrating game? Yes. Can it be a fun game? You bet. But no matter how bad things have gotten, or how bad they’ll get, I’ve never once considered sending an angry tweet to one of the guys on their teams (or their spouse, or family members…) to complain about their performance. Not one time.

But I guess some people just have more free time than I do.

Lost another leftfielder. Can’t win on the road. Hitting is insanely inconsistent. Cingrani is the real deal. Reds need to play better.

(Photo by Patrick McDermott/Getty Images)

The already taxed bullpen is being asked to work even more, which means that guys like Manny Parra have to work two innings in a tie game. The same Manny Parra that struck out the side in the top of the 9th on Tuesday, and then promptly gave up a homer to the mighty Barney Darwin/Darwin Barney, who has NEVER HIT A HOME RUN ON THE ROAD BEFORE. Ever. Until Tuesday. I think it’s safe to say that Parra is the guy who’s sent down once Marshall comes off the DL.

It’s been easy to forget about Johnny Cueto when his rookie replacement Tony Cingrani has 17 strikeouts in only 12.0 innings. The rest of the starting pitching has been excellent — it’s the offense that’s the problem.

Votto still looks mostly lost at the plate, getting over-matched by guys like Carlos Marmol and Kevin Gregg. Yes, he had a good two game stretch against the Marlins, but I’ve seen him in countless clutch situations this season where he’s had trouble even making the contact. Even the game-tying hit he had in the bottom of the 9th of Tuesday’s game was a weakly hit grounder that barely got past the diving second baseman. Granted, it was a hit, but the Votto I know would be peppering doubles all over the place.

Todd Frazier’s homer yesterday sure was majestic, but it’s also the only thing he’s done offensively for the last week or so. It’s hard for me to get on Chris Heisey’s case because I don’t think anyone believes that he’s an everyday player. He’s in the lineup out of necessity.

I will give some credit where credit is due. The Cubs’ pitching staff is way better than you would think, but that’s no excuse for this lineup to put up a measly numbers against their starters. Most of the runs the Reds scored in this series was against the Cubs’ bullpen.

But, the Reds won the series and finished the home stand winning 8 out of 10, so it’s hard to complain. But I will anyway.

*He’s a professional baseball player, apparently.

My wife’s snoring/coughing woke me up half an hour later, so I glanced at my phone:

Reds score 3 in bottom of 13th to beat Cubs 5-4.

As my friend Joel Luckhaupt (@jluckhaupt) says: Cubs gonna Cub.

Last night’s game was like most of the Marlins series, where the Reds had plenty of opportunities to dispose of a terrible team way earlier than they did, but — for whatever reason — didn’t. When Carlos Marmol actually got batters out, and then strutted around the dugout saying, “I did my job, guys! Did you see that?! Did you?!” — I knew the Reds were in for a long night.

Frankly, I’m getting a little tired — figuratively and literally — of these extra-inning games. I’m sure the bullpen feels the same way. It really shouldn’t take 7 pitchers to beat the Chicago Cubbies. But the Reds have struck out at least 10 batters in 5 straight games, so I guess the pitchers are doing okay.

For now.

(AP Photo/Michael E. Keating)

I’ve been pretty quiet for the past week thanks to an illness that has incapacitated me (and now Miss Sabo’s Goggles). But I’m back. Sort of.

When we last spoke, the Reds were mired in a 5-game losing streak that had Reds fans threatening to abandon ship after only 12 games. Since then, the Reds have started off their home-stand with a 3-game sweep of the Phillies, a dismantling of the Marlins on Thursday night (a game that saw Tony Cingrani strikeout 8 and give up only 1 run in 5.0 innings of his debut), a frustrating loss on Friday night, and two wins over the weekend.

When you add it all up, the Reds have won 6 of their last 7, leaving them with a commanding .5 game lead over the Pirates and Cardinals with just 143 games to go.

Let’s talk about the offense. The Reds have scored 106 runs in their first 19 games. That’s tops in MLB. Their run differential is 32 — 2nd best in MLB. And, SHHH, don’t tell anyone, but Joey Votto has awoken from his slumber.

Release the Kraken!

Now the Chicago Cubs and their 57 runs-scored and comical amount of errors come to town for a 3-game series. Which means that the Reds will probably get shutout in the series and the Cubbies’ will play stellar defense and their bats will suddenly come to life.